NEC Laboratories America

Optical Sensing & Solutions

From early concepts and laboratory validation to proven field deployments on live infrastructure, we develop technologies that sense the physical world, transform observations into intelligence, and enable informed action. Building on our expertise in optics and photonics, we are expanding toward multimodal sensing, AI-powered understanding, and intelligent systems that interact with the physical world.

Deployed telecom cables, urban fiber networks, and emerging optical sensors provide a powerful foundation for observing the physical world at scale. Our research spans forward-looking theoretical studies, cutting-edge experiments, artificial intelligence, and world- and industry-first field trials. We transform existing infrastructure into dense, real-time sensing platforms capable of monitoring complex environments over large areas.

Our research follows a broad sense–understand–act vision. We develop optical and distributed fiber sensing technologies that capture physical phenomena; AI methods that interpret complex signals, combine information across sensors, diagnose events, and predict changing conditions; and intelligent solutions that translate these insights into decisions and responses. Looking ahead, we envision extending this foundation beyond optical sensing to multimodal sensing and autonomous systems, including robotics, that can perceive, reason about, and respond to the physical world.

Our current work spans optical sensing, infrared imaging and spectroscopy, radio-frequency spectrum sensing and AI-enabled sensing analytics. These technologies can detect, localize, and characterize vibrations, intrusions, equipment conditions, and environmental changes along an infrastructure network’s physical route. By integrating sensing with edge computing and AI, we seek to move beyond data collection toward real-time understanding, prediction, and automated response.

By uniting advanced sensing, physical-world AI, and intelligent action, Optical Sensing & Solutions aims to create safer, more resilient, and more autonomous systems for infrastructure, utilities, transportation, environmental monitoring, public safety, smart cities, and intelligent manufacturing.

Join Us

Are you interested in joining us? We seek the next generation of thought leaders in optical sensing for researcher positions. Outstanding applicants pursuing a career in optical sensing are encouraged to visit our careers page to learn more and apply for available positions.

Summer 2026 Internship Applications are now closed.

Exciting internship opportunities for Summer 2027 will be available on our internship page this fall.  We are looking for students pursuing advanced degrees in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering. Internships are typically 3 months long during the summer. The benefits of working for us include the opportunity to quickly join a project team applying cutting-edge technology to industry-leading concepts.

To apply for a Summer Internship, visit our Internship page.

Learn More

Want to learn more about our optical sensing & solutions department? Meet our team of experts, check out our blog posts, or read our latest publications.

Featured Optical Sensing & Solutions Research Projects

Latest Optical Sensing & Solutions News

Sarper Ozharar Receives Achievement in Science and Technology Award from Koç University

Sarper Ozharar was awarded an Achievement in Science and Technology Award from Koç University on their notable 30th anniversary.  As an alumnus of this esteemed institution, Sarper shared that this recognition is especially meaningful to him, marking a significant milestone in his professional journey.

Beyond Communication: Telecom Fiber Networks for Rain Detection and Classification

We present the field trial of an innovative neural network and DAS-based technique, employing a pre-trained CNN fine-tuning strategy for effective rain detection and classification within two practical scenarios.

Distributed Fiber-Optic Sensor as an Acoustic Communication Receiver Array

A novel acoustic transmission technique using distributed acoustic sensors is introduced. By choosing better incident angles for smaller fading and employing an 8- channel beamformer, over 10KB data is transmitted at a 6.4kbps data rate.

OFDM Signal Transmission Using Distributed Fiber-Optic Acoustic Sensing

Acoustic data transmission with the Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) signal has been demonstrated using a Distributed Acoustic Sensor (DAS) based on Phase-sensitive Optical Time-Domain Reflectometry (?-OTDR).

Long Reach Fibre Optic Distributed Acoustic Sensing using Enhanced Scattering Fibre

We report significant noise reduction in distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) link using enhanced-scatter fibre (ESF). The longest reach of 195km DAS link without inline amplifications is also demonstrated. We further present demonstration of simultaneous fibre-optic sensing and 400Gb/s data transmissions

First Field Demonstration of Automatic WDM Optical Path Provisioning over Alien Access Links for Data Center Exchange

We demonstrated under six minutes automatic provisioning of optical paths over field- deployed alien access links and WDM carrier links using commercial-grade ROADMs, whitebox mux-ponders, and multi-vendor transceivers. With channel probing, transfer learning, and Gaussian noise model, we achieved an